


What Would You Like To Eat?

by Warp5Complex_Archivist



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-03-14
Updated: 2006-03-14
Packaged: 2018-08-16 05:54:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8090041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Warp5Complex_Archivist/pseuds/Warp5Complex_Archivist
Summary: The way to the heart is often through the stomach. Set in Season 1. (08/31/2004)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Kylie Lee, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Warp 5 Complex](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Warp_5_Complex), the software of which ceased to be maintained and created a security hazard. To make future maintenance and archive growth easier, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in August 2016. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but I may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Warp 5 Complex collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Warp5Complex).

Hoshi walked through the doors to the mess. I'm running awfully late, she thought to herself, noticing that there were very few people left in the room. She knew that she was running late, but she didn't expect to almost miss dinner entirely. She'd just gotten so wrapped up in her work.

Hoshi walked up to the serving area and groaned when she realized that there was next to nothing good left to eat. Let's see...great. I have a choice of day-old meatloaf, lettuce, or what might be boiled, vegetarian hot-dogs. Ugh. Nothing worse than non-meat trying to act like meat. Hoshi grabbed the one thing that seemed even remotely palatable, a side-dish of mashed potatoes, and turned back to the room. The only people left in the mess, Malcolm, Travis and Trip, were gathered together at one table. As Hoshi approached them, she realized that Travis and Trip were talking animatedly about, of all things, Monty Python movies. Oh, no, thought Hoshi. Not again. Hoshi started to head past them to the other side of the room when she heard Trip start to sing the "Sperm" song from "The Meaning of Life." Travis chimed in on the choruses. As she passed the table, she noticed that Malcolm wasn't participating in their conversation, his focus instead on the padd in his hand.

Hoshi had almost made it past them and to her table when Trip, breaking off in mid-verse, caught her eye and waved her over to join them. "Hoshi!" Trip exclaimed. "Come on over." As Hoshi slid into a seat between Trip and Malcolm, Trip glanced down at Hoshi's plate. "Yummy looking meal. Is that all you're having?"

"This was all that there was left," Hoshi replied, looking sadly at her plate.

"You have to be quick here," Trip said, motioning his fork towards his dish. "Key lime pie, want some? I think I got the last piece."

"No thanks," Hoshi sighed as she sat down and dejectedly started in on her potatoes.

"They still have tofu-dogs," Travis said, taking a large bite out of the one he was eating. "They're good!"

"I prefer tofu to taste like tofu," replied Hoshi. "Those things are gross."

"Suit yourself, more for me," said Travis, wiggling a slice of tofu- dog in front of Hoshi's nose.

Hoshi sighed, looking down at her plate, and said, "I miss Oden." She took a bite of the potatoes, then looked up at Travis. "I'd even go for some Soba noodles right now." She took another scoop of the potatoes, raised her fork towards her mouth, looked at it, then put it back down, uneaten. "I guess I'm kind of homesick for home food, if you know what I mean?"

Travis replied, "I don't know, I kind of like the foods on the ship."

Trip interjected, "That's cuz they're just like the ones you grew up with."

Travis laughed, "No—better!"

Hoshi turned to Trip, "Trip, are there any foods you miss from home?"

"Yeah, actually," Trip replied. "Cane syrup. Fresh fish. Really fresh citrus. Kumquat jelly." Looking down at his pie, he continued, "decent key lime pie. Not that I'm complaining," as he scooped another forkful into his mouth. He mumbled around the food to Malcolm, "how 'bout you?"

Malcolm looked up from his padd, "I miss some of the foods, especially the sweets. Cendol, ais kacang...and the satays."

Travis interrupted, "Um, what's an ayes..."

"An ais kacang is a sweet—a sort of a bean and jelly thing topped with shaved ice, syrup and condensed milk. It was one of my favourites growing up," Malcolm continued. "Cendol is sugar syrup, coconut milk and green noodles. And Satays are meat kebabs in spicy peanut sauce."

Trip said, with a hint of a grin in his voice, "I thought all you Brits ate, like, bangers and mash, fish and chips and stuff like that. None of that stuff you just mentioned sounds too British."

Malcolm replied with a small, tight smile, "well, I am British, but I grew up partly in Malaysia."

Hoshi thought to herself, Malaysia? She sat back in her chair. I did not know that. She took the opportunity to give Malcolm an appraising stare as his attention was focused on Trip. There's a lot that I don't know about this one.

Trip responded to the tenseness in Malcolm, "I'm just kidding, I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by that."

Malcolm nodded and looked back down at his padd.

Hoshi tried to draw him back into the conversation. "I didn't know you'd lived in Malaysia."

Malcolm continued, "My parents live in Kota Bharu now, on the east coast, and I went to school there for a while when I was young."

"Did you eat a lot of Malaysian foods?" Travis asked.

Malcolm smiled. "There really aren't a lot of Malaysian foods—most of the food is heavily influenced by Chinese, or Indian. But all of it gets a Maylay twist, and that makes it unique. And even though we lived in one of the most important cultural cities in Malaysia, we didn't eat a lot of local foods at home. We were British, after all," Malcolm laughed, looking over at Trip and smiling. He then glanced at Hoshi, caught her looking him over, gave her a teasing look, then returned his focus to Travis. "And my mum didn't like highly-spiced foods. I used to sneak out some nights and go to the night market. It had an amazing variety of foods. Ayam percik...sort of a barbequed chicken with creamy coconut sauce. And I used to love the banana pancakes, pisang murtabak."

Hoshi was amazed. She'd been working with Malcolm for over a year, and she couldn't remember his ever talking so much or so animatedly on any subject other than armaments. She realized that she knew next- to-nothing about his non-Starfleet life, and decided to keep the conversation going, see where it would lead.

After a pause, Hoshi asked Malcolm, "Is there anything else you miss about home?"

Malcolm replied, "Well...oddly enough, I actually miss Ramadan. Not the fasting itself, but the after-hours breaking of those fasts," he grinned.

Travis broke in, "but...I thought you...I didn't realize that you were Muslim."

"I'm not, Malcolm responded, "but most of the people in Kota Bahru are, and many of my friends from the British International School were." Malcolm leaned back in his chair, "during the month of Ramadan the town pretty much shuts up shop during the day. If my parents were away and I didn't want to eat what was at home, I'd have to wait until evening to be able to go out to get something. Even if I'd eaten, I'd still try to get out after-hours so that I could break the fast with my closest friends' families. It was fun."

Hoshi looked from Malcolm, to Trip, to Travis. This felt comfortable, she realized. It was kind of fun talking to the guys about something other than work, and it was really nice having Malcolm open up like this. I'd like to find a way to continue this, she thought.

Trip and Travis stood up, Trip saying that he had to get back to work. Hoshi realized that she didn't have a lot of time, but she had an idea, "how about we have a pot luck dinner on Saturday night? Each of us brings a dish from our homes, something that we miss, that really represents our homes. Even if it doesn't taste the same as it would at home, it'll still be fun."

"Great," replied Trip, as he headed towards the door. Turning back to Malcolm, he said, "I definitely like the sound of that, um, pising ma...banana pancake," as he and Travis went out the door.

Hoshi, still at the table with Malcolm, looked at her plate, empty now of the mashed potatoes. "I'm still hungry."

"Me too," replied Malcolm, glancing down at his own empty plate.

"Nothing left up there," Hoshi added, pointing at the serving area, "but I think I might have some some snacky-things in my cabin. Interested?"

"Sure," replied Malcolm with a smile. "What have you got?"

"Kamu nak makan apa?" Hoshi asked Malcolm with a smile. Malcolm looked at her with surprise. "I don't know," he replied. "What's Oden?" Hoshi started to explain about the fish stew her grandmother used to make as they walked out of the mess together. As they walked, she smiled to herself, thinking, I knew that my study of bahasa Malaysia would come in handy some day.


End file.
